The invention relates to a finger ring dosimeter which includes a thermoluminescent detector mounted in a ring formed as an open clasp.
For the measurement of ionizing photon radiation such as X rays, it is known to retain solid detecting members such as thermoluminescent glasses, alanines or other materials in various types of mountings which, however, will not permit analysis of the detecting member without its removal from the mounting. The detector mountings usually have profiled surface areas which make it difficult or impossible to fully remove dirt, bacteria or other contaminant deposits whichis particularly objectionable in an operating room area, for example. In addition, foreign matter might reach even the detector member since the detector member is not sufficiently protected. The use of dosimeters with such mountings under special measuring conditions, for example, in connection with a water phantom (a plexiglass container filled with water to simulate the human tissue), is therefore questionable.
It is also known that certain solid materials after irradiation will emit light when subjected to high temperatures and the quantity of the light emitted is utilized as a measure for the accumulated dosis. Present detector mountings however are not capable of resisting the temperature and at the same time providing for spectral light transparency. It is also known that a dosimeter needs to be adapted for its particular application, that is, a finger ring or person dosimeter must be assigned to the wearer and a local or environmental dosimeter must be assigned to a particular location. This is normally done by number assignments. Presently, the numbers are firmly associated with the support structure since they do not have the space for sufficiently large labeling with the exception of local dosimeters (with solid material dosimeter supports). Renewal of the markings of a dosimeter after an interval of usage including the evaluation procedure is not possible so that the properly assigned dosimeter has to be searched for when needed.
It is therefore the object of the present invention to improve the dosimeter handling efficiency by permitting the routine handling of particle dosimetry by way of single or multiple purpose dosimeters which requires a universally usable dosimeter mount for solid state detectors and a corresponding evaluation procedure.